Europe’s border security agency Frontex has been implicated in various illicit “pushbacks” of migrants and refugees passing the Aegean Sea from Turkey to Greece, a media investigation has exposed.
The investigation reveals “senior Frontex officials aware about unlawful works by Greek border guards – and that several of them are involved in pushbacks”, Germany’s Der Spiegel announced on its website.
Also recognised as defilements, “pushbacks” are events where refugees or migrants are illegally passed beyond a border to a nation where they could suffer imprisonment.
Reporters assume they had revealed six events since April when Frontex units did nothing to prevent refugee boats in Greek waters being turned towards Turkey.
A video from a June event presents a Frontex boat obstructing one with refugees on it. A next shot from the same confrontation confirms it speeding beyond the bow of the ship before departing the area.
Journalist investigative platform Bellingcat, German public broadcaster ARD, and Japanese broadcaster TV Asahi were implicated in the probe with Der Spiegel.
The reporters state they examined “dozens” of videos, also reviewing satellite images and witness statements from refugees, migrants and Frontex workers.
Der Spiegel published that more than 600 people from the European border agency outfitted with boats, drones and aircraft are stationed in Greece, where many transients first infiltrate the European Union.
It added that Frontex would not reflect on the specific cases revealed by the search, but pointed to a human rights and non-refoulement principles of conduct deemed to bind staff.
On Friday, it posted on Twitter that its activities in support of Greek officials were “in full reverence of fundamental rights and international law”, continuing that it “has been in connection with the Greek officials regarding some conflicts at sea in recent months”.
Athens had started an “inside inquiry”, it replied.
The Greek government rejects it carried pushbacks of refugees to Turkey. Frontex executives have openly declared that they apprehend nothing about pushbacks by Greek border guards.